The Beginnings of a Way of Life! (Part 9)

Steps to the Spirit

I know, I know, once again this is supposed to be the summary of the influence of the Oxford group on the 12 step program. However I listen to a talk yesterday on the 12 steps and the Oxford group and I discovered some information that I had never, heard before. The speaker, who was anonymous because it was a talk hosted by an Alcoholics Anonymous group, describes what he referred to as, “the 4 steps” of the Oxford group. Well, I certainly couldn’t and these episodes without informing you about these 4 steps. The speaker said they came from a book called, “What Is the Oxford Group”, by L.W. Grensted. I am including those 4 steps below:

The 4 Steps of the Oxford Group:

1. The sharing of our sins and temptations with another Christian life given to God, and to use sharing as witness to help others still unchanged to recognize and acknowledge their sins.

2. Surrender our life, past, present, and future into God’s keeping and direction.

3. Restitution to all whom we have harmed directly or indirectly.

4. Listening to, accepting, and relying on Gaia God’s guidance and carrying it out in everything we do or say, great or small.

I realize that the language, and words, are a little foreign in this day and age, especially in this first step. However, isn’t this basically saying what the fourth and fifth steps in today’s program say? Of course, we don’t need to do the six step with a “Christian”, and we have our own terms or way of looking at the words sin and temptation, but I think they all come down to the same thing in each of us.

Step 2 is all about surrender. This term is certainly implied in the first three steps. Ultimately, this is my goal as a result of the whole of the 12 step program… to learn to completely listen and surrender to God’s wishes and direction.

The 3rd step is all about trying to make those things we did that affected people in a negative way, right. Restitution keeps cropping up in the Oxford group literature because they saw it as being so important to their recovery and reconnection with God.

Step number 4, happens to be my current, favorite step, at least in this particular list. I think it encompasses steps 10, 11 and 12. Of course, any of you who have read my writings know that I have created a philosophical/theological system called Mystical Interrelational Trinitarianism, or, MIT. It happens to be all about learning to listen for the influence of our Spirit; learning to discern and disseminate what we truly hear from her Spirit; and using what we hear to direct our humanity. After I say that everlasting, permanent, and eternal “yes” to God, listening for His/Her direction becomes my most important spiritual activity.

I certainly hope you will enjoy this podcast and I promise that part number 10 in the series will be a summary of the influence of the Oxford Group.